Photos With Friends Facebook Application

Photo by Jessie Barber

So, around the beginning of the summer, I began to work on a Facebook application called Photos With Friends. The idea was that it would be really cool to see which of your friends are in the most photos with you. Well, it took me a few days to get it up and working and have a decent feature set. Not only could you look at your “photos with friends,” but you could also check other people’s, and you could add a top-6 list to your profile.

Then I left it.

There were a couple cosmetic changes that I needed to make, including finding that great photo for it that you see above. So, I forgot about it for a while. It was left in developer mode, which meant I was the only person who could install it on my facebook profile, and no one else would see the top-6 box on my profile. So for a couple months, it became just an extra thing on my profile that I shifted around once in a while when I added more stuff. Then one day, Facebook get a new thing to parse the code on profile pages. It broke my app. Not entirely broke, but it caused some problems. The problems were entirely Facebook’s fault, and it didn’t take them long to fix it (a few hours), but during those hours, I was trying to fix it myself. And once I started working on it, I couldn’t stop.

So I finally finished the last one or two things that I needed to do on it, and brought it out of developer mode. I then msged all my friends (I’m sure some were annoyed), telling them about my new app, hoping some would install it. Several did, and then I submitted the app for approval into the Facebook Application Directory. The only way more people would use it is if it was in there. That was last Saturday.

It would seem Facebook employees don’t work on weekends or Labor Day (makes sense), so my application didn’t get handled until today. But today, when I got back from class, I checked, and saw these glorious words: “Application Approved!” I quickly pulled open the directory to find my app. It had only been on there a few hours, I suppose, as it was still on the first page of the “Newest” apps. You can see a screenshot of it here. By the time I found it on the directory, over half a dozen new people had already added the app!

This may seem like a small accomplishment, but I am really excited. I worked on something I enjoy, and people recognized it. It’s great!

Some of you may think, “But wait! You’re an actor. People recognize your work all the time.” Well, yes, that’s true. But this is really the first time I’ve worked on something computer-related and someone other than my family and friends have acknowledged it. It’s a good feeling.